Zend Studio 7.0 will support PHP 5.3 and integrate with other company technologies like Zend Framework and Zend Server to provide everything needed to build a Web application

Zend Technologies, makers of tools for PHP application development, is offering a beta version of its Zend Studio 7.0 development environment, featuring support for PHP 5.3, the company said this week.

PHP 5.3 language features supported include namespaces, late static binding, and closures. Code assistance and syntax highlighting are offered in version 7.0, based on the 5.3 version of PHP.

Also featured in version 7.0 are enhanced source editing, including in-place code refactoring and semantic analysis. Other capabilities include enhanced integration with the Zend Framework Web framework and integration with the Zend Server PHP Web application server, including problem diagnostic, and better performance.

The significance of Zend Studio 7.0, according to Zend representative Brad Cottel, "is that everything needed to build a Web application is available from within the IDE itself," he said. This includes capabilities from coding to debugging and code generation support for Zend Framework and insight into events running on Zend Server.

"It's also a much faster/snappier environment now as well," Cottel said.

General release of Zend Studio, which is built on the Eclipse PHP Development Tools 2.1 project, is anticipated this summer. The beta is available for download.